Calves & Kids

One thing I have enjoyed while we’ve been in Golden Bay are all the cute spring born animals we pass on our travels. From the new born lambs in just about every paddock we drive by or walk through, to the dozens of calves, dairy herds of the future, leaping about & jostling with each other. But the ones that made me smile the most were a yard of the cutest kids ever, all full of mischief and constantly on the go. Here’s a selection of photos-

Lambs & ewes at Puponga Farm Park-

As soon as I approached the fence these Jersey calves came racing over to have a look, they seemed to weighted down by their ear tags but I’m sure they’ll grow into them…..

Some were more adventurous than others, sniffing the air to check me out before approaching.

I wanted to let them suck my fingers like we used to do on the farm to lead the calves into the pens or just for the fun of it, but I decided I had better not as I didn’t want to pass on any germs. Nowadays the dairy farms tend to look very sterile & spic ‘n span compared with the small dairy sheds of old.

So that’s how it’s done!

These older Fresian calves were in an old cow shed yard beside the road near the Devils Boots. As soon as they saw our ute approaching they came racing through the yard and crowded the fence. I think they thought we were the farmer with dinner. They wanted to suck my fingers too but soon lost interest when they realised we didn’t have food.

On my way back from the Tata Beach shags I explored a few side roads that led to the beach and along one of them right by the side of the road I found this yard of kids. They were so funny, I could have watched them all day. There were about 25 of them and it looked like they had been recently weaned and had their horn buds burnt/sealed (yuk!- poor things). Some had massive “holes” in their heads where the buds had been and even though they were healing they looked awful.

It was obviously too late to do one of them though, she was the only one that still had her horns. She was also the nosiest one, standing on her hind legs up at the fence, nibbling my fingers & camera strap and pulling faces at me.

The yard had been set up like a children’s (kids) playground, an obstacle course for them to walk over & under, to jump from, to push others off and also to try and eat!

Goats really are so agile, they were leaping about all over the place and walking the horizontal pole like it was on the ground.

These kids also had the most beautiful clear pale blue eyes and the sweetest of faces.

And even though they seemed quite content playing in their yard, they took off in fright everytime a truck rumbled by.

Funny face! Too cute.

An hour later I thought I had better head home…..

The Final Chapter- The Lawrence Lions

Of course after all the intrigue created by my discovery of the existence of the Lawrence Lions there was just one more thing I had to do to complete the story; visit the lions at the Otago Museum’s Animal Attic in Dunedin.

This is where Sultan & Sonia now “live”, in a glass case surrounded by hundreds of stuffed animals, birds & bugs from around the world. Really quite a grotesque sight, but morbidly fascinating all the same. Those Victorians have a lot to answer for.

Footnote- the internet really is an amazing place. I received a comment on my blog post (link above) from the daughter of the man who shot the lions.

From Sarah Lodge;

Hi, it was my father who shot the lions. He is a real animal lover and hated killing such magnificent creatures. However, Craig the 6 yr old boy had been quite badly injured along with his mother by Sonya the female, so it had to be.